Fuzzy logic based Decision Support System framework for irrigation scheduling

Decision Support System (DSS) is computerized tool to provide decision for partially known system. DSS for agriculture system gains popularity in recent past. Irrigation scheduling is one of the important aspects for profitably and sustainability in agriculture system. One of the widely used irrigation scheduling approach is `Water Balance Approach´ as it does not requires highly accurate and costly sensors for soil moisture, canopy temperature, and leaf thickness. However, implementation of this method involves extensive computation and accurate measurement of large numbers of variables. In agriculture system, it is seldom possible to get accurate measurement values of necessary variables. This paper proposes fuzzy logic based DSS framework for irrigation scheduling. It is proposed to use fuzzy rule base for soil characterization, calculation of evapotranspiration, and estimation of root zone. Use of fuzzy logic helps to reduce computation requirements as well as eliminates need of accurate measurement of parameters.